This is a re-post of my recently published article on the Huffington Post about the broader repercussions of a well supported police force.
"Police PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and suicide has recently gained significant media attention over the last six months. This year Victoria Police alone has faced four too many police officer suicides. However in May 2016 Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton released thorough assessment into the service through the Victoria Police Mental Health Review (‘the Review’); which offered thirty-nine recommendations, ranging from short-term action steps to larger-scale longer term goals. This article shares my perspective as a police employee of the findings, and likely ripple effects that will be experienced both within the organisation and into the wider community should police wellbeing be treated as a priority.
One of the key findings of the review was that PTSD and suicide are relatively rare compared to their lesser counterparts of anxiety, depression and substance abuse. Nonetheless, it was acknowledged that if mental health issues and the cultural environment relating to such issues remained unchecked, the number of debilitating and even fatal outcomes would continue to rise. To address this, most significant changes flagged in the Review included the pressing need to change the workplace culture to become more emotionally aware and the call for more early intervention initiatives.
Having been a police employee I had the opportunity to see how these issues played out in the workplace and across various departments in the police force. As a civilian, I observed from a distance the culture of “suck it up princess” described in the Review. While the attitude itself is consistent with many other male dominated industries, this attitude is clearly counterproductive in such a challenging environment where people face traumatic incidents on a day-to-day basis. It is also known that this high intensity work pushes relationships and families to the brink.
The Review demonstrated a strong organisational discomfort of any emotional vulnerability. Examples of this issue were highlighted in a previous Huffington Post article on this issue. The quotes demonstrated that anyone who appears to display any semblance of weakness (i.e being distressed after attending the death of a child, for example) is met with disdain by some other officers or by superiors in the force.
Obviously the emotional needs of the individual are important to balance with the operational needs of the organisation but what has been missed in this discussion are the broader repercussions of such an ineffective strategy of either minimising or hiding true emotions about certain traumatic events.
The first important side effect of such unsupportive management is the increased likelihood of traumatised individuals to continue on doing their normal duties, hiding their discomfort to the point that they are no longer able to function. Managers aren’t able to do appropriate risk assessments without the knowledge of where their staff are at. The second side effect, flowing on from the first, is the community safety risks stemming from a workforce facing high levels of anxiety and depression. These issues, if unmanaged and then exacerbated by workplace bullying, are known to impair reaction times, concentration and decision making. The third effect is the strain on families and romantic relationships when resulting from the first two effects mentioned above.
By comparison if police officers were taught to experience and then model supportive, compassionate and people centred-behaviour we could also see an better workplace relationships, strong and more connected families, better risk assessments, safer and more measured decision making, stronger and more connected families as well as trauma-informed responses to complex mental health and domestic violence incidents.
In summary, recent media coverage has highlighted the prevalence mental health issues in our police forces. It has also revealed that certain managers have failed to identify and offer appropriate early intervention support to their teams. However, the issues which also need to considered and voiced is the powerful effect a change in perspective could have on individual police officer’s lives, their families, and the broader community at large."
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